vendredi 27 juin 2014

In the latest
development in what is amounting to a game of legal hopscotch-with the
freedom of an innocent woman and her family as the stakes-Meriam Yahia
Ibrahim, a 27-year-old mother and wife to an American citizen, has
reportedly been released from police custody in Khartoum. Meriam was
arrested Wednesday on two criminal charges after trying to leave the
country with husband, Daniel, and two children, Martin and Maya.

Nearly
75 years ago, Iraq flourished with many ethnic and religious
minorities, including large Jewish and Christian populations. The Jewish
communities were expelled in the 20th century and now the extremist
group, ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria) is expelling
Christians at an alarming rate. Before 2003, it was estimated that
around 130,000 Christians lived in Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city,
and only about 10,000 remained before the recent ISIS invasion a week
ago.

The Chan family, one
of five families to convert to Christianity, lost their beloved mother,
Mrs. Chan. Her children secured permission from the village chief to
have a Christian ceremony and burial on their own personal property.
However, the village reversed the decision until the children recanted
their Christian faith. The children kept their faith as Christian
leaders gathered to support them, but the village enforced a Buddhist
ceremony and detained several of the Christian leaders.

More
than 40 Christian leaders were arrested, and then released, accused of
alleged "forced conversions of Hindus." As Fides learns, the Nepalese
police executed the wave of arrests, all leaders belonging to Protestant
Christian communities, on June 13, under pressure from Nepalese Hindu
leaders. A Hindu mob gathered outside the prison, threatening an
uprising if the Christians were released. Most of the detainees were
released, but 8 leaders remained in custody until June 15.

Approximately 550 Coptic Christian girls and women have
disappeared in Egypt over the last three years, according to a report
from the Egyptian Association of Victims of Abduction and Enforced
Disappearances. Ebnar Louis, the Cairo activist who founded the
association in 2010, said police are typically indifferent to reports of
missing girls. Of the 550 missing females AVAED has investigated, only
10 have returned home and offered testimony.

For a couple of months, 52 Christian families had been denied food
rations from the local village head. When they approached the office of
the food inspector to ask for help, however, a mob stirred up by Hindu
radicals descended on them violently, beating them with sticks and
yelling abusively. Attorney Songsingh Jhali said, "The next day, the
village head called a public meeting saying no entry should be given to
outsiders in the village - and that everyone in the village should
embrace Hinduism or their lands would be seized."